Thursday, 10 October 2013

Sour Dough

A great sourdough bread is a wonderful addition to a bowl of warm soup or a great sandwich. A nice warm slice of bread is also just perfect still warm from the oven with a nice slather of butter. I have a starter that I have had in my fridge for the last year. You can simply start one and continue to feed it and keep it going in your fridge indefinitely. The starter makes a nice sour flavour for your bread.

Step 1: remove starter from the fridge and let come to room temperature. Add 1 cup of warm water and 1 cup of flour to starter. Leave for 1 hour until bubbling.

Step 2: In a large bowl add the active starter, water, honey, yeast, 2 1/2 cups of flour and salt. Mix as much as you can in the bowl and turn out onto the counter kneading the dough until you have a soft dough. Add the remaining 1 cup only as needed adding as much as necessary until the dough is no longer sticky to the touch.

Step 3: place dough in a large bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Place in a warm location for 12-14 hours until doubled in size. The starter works slower than store bought yeast.

Step 4: Turn out dough onto counter with a bit of flour and knead into a nice smooth ball.

Step 5: place the ball of dough on a sheet of parchment paper and place in a large bowl. Let rise another 2 hours. Heat oven to 450 degrees F. Place a heavy enamelled cast iron pot with a lid in the oven to heat for 20 minutes.

Step 6: carefully lift heavy pot from the oven and remove lid. Place the bread and the parchment inside the pot. Place the lid back on top and place in the oven for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes remove the pot from the oven and take off lid. Place bread back into the oven for another 20 minutes uncovered until browned and baked through. The pot acts as another oven to really get the bread hot enough to bake a nice crust. You can back it further than I have baked it to get an even crunchier, darker crust.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Follow by Email

There was an error in this gadget

Welcome

Hello!

Glad you stopped by. I hope this is a good place to get ideas for dinner or dessert with lots of pictures to help guide you along the way. My goal is to be clear with a bit of humour tossed in. My nephew says it sounds like we are just talking in my kitchen... Perfect!

If you subscribe by email or Facebook when a new post gets added you get the recipe sent directly to you.

About Me

I am a passionate home cook and have a Certificate of Sensory Aptitude in Olive Oil and am working on a 3 year Professional Olive Oil Taster Course. I like to show you how to use great Extra Virgin Olive Oils in your kitchen and I am always dreaming of the next great meal! Come cook with me.